Since I haven't actually read The Westing Game, I can't honestly tell you whether or not this movie abominated that poor book. But since the movie pretty much sucked, and I can't imagine any sane person choosing to make a movie out of a sucky children's book, I'm going to have go say something was probably lost in the adaptation/translation.
Ashley Peldon stars as Tabitha "Turtle" Wexler, a girl who gets involved in a game put on by a recently dead (...or IS he?), rich old guy, Mr. Westing. Westing involves Turtle, her mom, her sister, and a bunch of their neighbors. They must figure out the identity of Westing's murderer. The winner gets $20 million. There are clues. There are eccentric characters. There's... okay, I really didn't get this movie. It was bad. Really bad. Bad acting, bad direction, bad... other stuff.
Strong points? Well, at least it has young Miss Parker; can't go wrong there. Although every time Turtle steps onto an elevator, I kind of expect her to have a panic attack and start screaming "Mommmmmy!" and clutch that copy of Little Women while tears stream down her cheeks. But I digress.
The Westing Game is available on DVD under the title Get a Clue, but there's also a Lindsay Lohan movie by that title. Talk about confusing. I should rent that one and see which one's better. Or not. I think I've had enough pain and suffering for a while.
Also, the DVD cover baffles me...
...because that girl is so obviously not Ashley Peldon. It was like they went, "Hey, let's just hire a random brown-haired girl and stick her on the cover as if she's in this movie and see if anybody notices!" Maybe they were counting on most people not being able to sit through the entire thing, and they thought they wouldn't get figured out. And why is she holding a magnifying glass? That isn't even in the movie! Oh, I give up.
